April 13: Sophomore Will McKee took a crossing pass from senior Kevin Russell with under a minute to play in the first overtime and tallied his second goal of the game on Rensselaer netminder Ryan DeJordy, giving No. 12 St. Lawrence an exciting 7-6 win against the Red Hawks at North Country Field on Sunday afternoon.

The Saints improved to 6-2 (3-0) with the win, while RPI falls to 8-4 (2-2) on the season. Despite being out-shot 37-19, the Red Hawks were kept in the game by DeJordy, who was posted an outstanding 13-save performance.

Rensselaer was able to get the upper-hand on the Saints in the early going, taking a 3-1 lead in the first quarter. After Russell put St. Lawrence on top 1-0, the Red Hawks answered with goals from Nick Billy, Josh Secora and PJ McComb to take a two-goal advantage.

St. Lawrence would respond in the final two minutes of the opening stanza, though, as junior Alex Slauson scored at 12:59 and was followed by McKee with 33 seconds remaining in the quarter to level the score at 3-3.

The Saints, who held a 13-4 advantage in shots in the first frame, scored the only two goals of the second quarter to take a 5-3 lead into halftime. Junior Peter Carroll scored an unassisted goal at 3:45, while Slauson picked up his second of the day after a nice touch-pass by junior Kyle Benton at 12:39 of the quarter for the 5-3 advantage.

The two teams played to a scoreless third quarter thanks to solid goaltending performances by DeJordy and St. Lawrence’s junior Thomas Hollingsworth. The Saints would extend their advantage to 6-3 only a minute into the fourth quarter when senior Mike Long took a pass from Carroll and beat the RPI netminder with 14:00 minutes to play in regulation.

Though St. Lawrence’s defensive unit, including senior Brian Chamberlain, junior Nick Stefans and senior Ben Buskey, did a great job protecting Hollingsworth, Rensselaer began to chip away midway through the fourth quarter and got back into the game.

Rensselaer ’s Ryan Bigham took a pass from Conor Chocheles and buried a goal with 8:59 remaining in regulation, while Mike Sampson added his third point of the day with a goal only 1:27 later to cut the deficit to 6-5.

St. Lawrence did their best to run out the clock, but Rensselaer added constant pressure in the final minutes hoping to cause a key turnover. After killing of a 30-second penalty with under a minute remaining in regulation, Rensselaer intercepted a pass from Hollingsworth in the midfield and moved towards the cage. With 6.8 seconds on the clock, Alex MacDiarmid took a feed from Billy and fired it past Hollingsworth for the tying goal, 6-6, sending the game into the overtime session.

Each team had several early chances in overtime to earn the victory, but Rensselaer ’s defense was able to cause two turnovers while Hollingsworth made a clutch save for the Saints to keep the game knotted at 6-6.

As a Rensselaer midfielder looked to set up a play with just over a minute remaining in the first overtime, Stefans made a fantastic defensive play, knocking the ball away, scooping it up and leading the transition run for the Scarlet and Brown. As he got near DeJordy and the RPI cage, he dumped the ball off to Russell, who sent a crisp pass to the right post to a wide-open McKee who beat the goaltender and sent the entire Saints team storming on to the field with a 7-6 win.

“That was a great college lacrosse game today, and I give Rensselaer credit as they’re a well-coached and talented team,” said St. Lawrence head coach Mike Mahoney. “Thomas (Hollingsworth) came up with a big save in overtime, and I thought our guys did a nice job of keeping their focus after giving up the tying goal.”

Hollingsworth finished with seven saves in the victory, improving to 6-2 on the season, while DeJordy suffered the loss despite making 13 saves.

St. Lawrence will be in action again at North Country Field on Wednesday, April 16 when they welcome Clarkson University for a Liberty League contest beginning at 4:00pm .